Spicy Indian Roasted Chickpeas

Overall, I’ve been feeling great. I’ve managed to avoid all added sugars, mostly by preparing nearly all my meals at home. Fortunately it was one of those rare weeks where we didn’t have some type of birthday/retirement/going away celebration in the office, so I wasn’t faced with too much temptation.

Mike and I visited my sister since she moved away to start grad school (so proud!), but we chose a raw food restaurant that was vegan, gluten- and sugar-free, so it was definitely easier than going to your typical restaurant. I had soft tacos with a walnut ‘meat’ filling. So tasty! We all enjoyed out meals.

I have been feeling energetic enough for the most part, though both Mike and I had an energy slump one afternoon and we wondered if it was because of the no-sugar thing. We still went for a run later on, so it couldn’t have been that bad!

I’d say that so far the main benefit I’ve experienced is that I’ve felt great about my food choices all week. In addition to avoiding sugar, I’ve just been trying to make good choices and have been eating heavily plant-based meals. I’ve also been relying on seeds, nuts and nut-butters to keep me full. I definitely do find that I get hungry much more quickly only a couple hours after these sorts of meals, but the good part is that when I get hungry, I can just go eat more of the healthy stuff, but I’m still left feeling light.

My favourite snacks this week have been veggies and hummus, chia pudding and this batch of chickpeas I roasted up. This is basically the crunchy snack version of chana masala. So easy! Just use chickpeas out of the can, toss them in spices and roast.

It’s funny because it has shown me both how much, and how little sugar I normally eat. Since I haven’t had to make too many changes to my regular meals, I see that I don’t really consume THAT many hidden added sugars (tho they do add up!). It’s really mostly the obvious stuff like cookies and cakes and candy that get me, so cutting all that out has been huge!